Father Figure
by joshuaorrizonte
Summary: Dirk's been restless, and he doesn't know why. The last thing he expected to come of his searching, though, was to be a Dad. Teen for safety


Disclaimer: ToS ain't mine, don't sue me please. I don't have much to sue for.

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Each time he came out from the caverns, it became a little harder to find them again. He didn't know what he was looking for when he left his underground home, just that he was restless. Unhappy. It wasn't with the underground, oh no- being a dwarf, solid stone and dark corridors lit by warm flame was where he was comfortable. The earth could be shaped into anything at will. All of the chambers of the labyrinthine caves were fully furnished, tables and chairs and beds and cabinets carved directly from the bedrock. It was, in a word, beautiful.

No, it wasn't his home that made him unhappy- turned his stomach, more like. It was his kin. The Dwarven Vows were slowly being forgotten. Many of his kind began to work with the Desians, and he didn't know why. They had always been contacts of Cruxis, the benevolent organization that helped set the stage for the Regeneration of the world. Indeed, there had been a baby girl born in the village of Iselia, said to have been clutching a strange Exsphere in her tiny hand as she took her first breaths.

_Hogwash_, Dirk thought to himself. An Angel of Cruxis came down to take the poor girl's mother up when she lost her life to childbirth. The Angel gave the Exsphere to the girl's guardians. _Born with an Exsphere in her hand... I can't believe they're actually going to tell that poor girl that kind of fib._

Perhaps that's what he was looking for- or rather, trying to do, when he ventured from the caverns. The newly-elected mayor's first order of business was to strike a deal with the Desians: Leave Iselia alone, and they'll leave the Human Ranch alone. The treaty was set up to protect the newborn Colette, and had been in effect for almost two years now. The master of that Ranch, Forcystus, had honored the treaty so far. Dirk didn't trust him any more than he trusted any other Desian. Maybe he was keeping a look out for signs of an impending attack. The humans had become complacent. They needed to be warned if Forcystus took back his word.

It was nearing dark; if Dirk didn't return to the caverns, he wouldn't be able to find his way back until the morning. The dwarf turned back towards the cliffs, tromping slowly. Part of him didn't _want_ to make it back before dark. He wondered if the people of Iselia had need of a blacksmith. This uneasiness, the feeling of malaise that brought him out of his home time and again, was growing day by day, outing by outing. Perhaps he merely needed a change of scenery. He was, after all, a young dwarf, by dwarven standards. How old compared to human years? He figured in his head how long dwarves lived, and then how long humans did, and figured himself to probably be in his late twenties, or maybe early thirties, as far as human years went. _Now why did I bother figuring that out? _

As he walked, he tilted his head slightly. The night birds were coming out early tonight. Enjoying the cries of the birds, he took a quick glance at the sky, and frowned. Twilight had just set in. There was something wrong; it was _far_ too early for the night birds. He calmed himself, focusing on the life all around him with all of his senses, and came to a sharp realization that made his stomach twist in alarm. That cry wasn't from a bird. It came from a woman. And she sounded _hurt_.

He spun around, searching the woods frantically for the source of the cry. It was only a moment before he calmed himself; if this woman was hurt, he needed to find her quickly, and that wouldn't be done by panicking himself. He listened for her again; when she didn't cry out, he did. "Where you be?" he yelled. The dwarf listened intently, and heard the woman once more, a little louder this time. "Sit tight, I'm coming to help! Keep yelling if you can!"

Dirk tromped through the woods, heading steadily towards the cliffs. Judging by the woman's yells, she wasn't far from the Cavern entrance. He felt cold as he ran as fast as his short legs could carry him. His kin wouldn't view a lone woman as a threat, would they? Unless it was those who now sided with the Desians what hurt her... or perhaps she wasn't alone.

The dwarf quickly discarded this concept as paranoia. She sounded genuinely desperate; the pain in her voice was almost tangible. Sure enough, Dirk could see the cliff through the trees now, and the woman was clearly wounded. As he drew nearer, she raised her head, looking at him intently, then lowered it again in relief. Her face was smeared with blood, her simple dress torn asunder and stained dark with blood, around her midsection.

Dirk knelt next to her, noting that she indeed wasn't alone. A child nestled next to her, his brown eyes wide with terror and his tiny body shaking. The boy whimpered as the dwarf laid his hands on the woman's torso; the woman shrieked in agony. "I'm sorry," Dirk cried, withdrawing his hands and examining the wound closer. It was mortal; she would die. It was a wonder she wasn't dead already. But he had to try to do something! "Here, I have some gels here, in my pack-"

"My... son..." the woman panted, pulling in quick, shallow breaths. "Not me, heal him."

Dirk looked up from his pack. "Are you sure, lassy? He doesn't seem too harmed."

The dying woman managed to shake her head. "He fell from the cliff when... when we were attacked," she gasped. "I... I think our... our dog broke his fall," she said, putting an odd emphasis on the word _dog_, "but still, that- that's a steep fall." The girl winced, curled in slightly around herself, grasping her stomach.

Dirk obeyed the woman, taking the gel and setting the boy with a stern look. The boy returned the dwarf's gaze, mistrusting. As soon as Dirk made a movement towards him, the toddler howled. "Lloyd, stop it!" the woman said sharply. The child's scream died immediately, and the woman said softer, "Be good. You have to be a good, brave boy, okay? Let the nice dwarf heal you. He'll make your head better." Dirk wondered at the strength the injured woman had as he tried to advance on the child again. This time, the boy held stiffly still, holding his breath until Dirk had smoothed the gel over what cuts and scrapes were the worst on the child's exposed skin.

"I've healed the worst of it," Dirk told the woman gently. "Now, lass, who did this to you? Desians, wasn't it?"

The woman gave a short, gasping laugh. "Yes, I guess... you could... say that..."

"What happened?"

"No... time." The woman looked at Dirk, the pain in her eyes clouding them. "I don't... think... his father made it," she forced out. Dirk could tell she was fading fast. "Please... take care of my... son. Just make... sure... he's safe. Please."

"Dwarven vow number two: Never abandon someone in need," Dirk replied gently. "I'll make sure your lad is cared for. Lloyd is his name, eh?"

The woman nodded, a smile touching her pained, exhausted face. "He's a... handful. But he's a good boy. Aren't you, Lloyd?" The toddler nodded, a tear streaking down his dirty face. The woman reached up and brushed it off his cheek. "There now... don't cry. Be strong for Mommy." Lloyd nodded again, sniffling and wiping his nose with the back of his hand. The woman reached into the bosom of her dress, and pulled an object from it. "Here... this is... what the Desians... were after. _They must not have it!_" she hissed urgently.

Dirk took the object gingerly. It was an Exsphere, and one that was an odd color, and warm to the touch. It was then that Dirk noticed that the woman had no key crest. The collar that she wore was blackened; before it had passed under his notice, thinking it just another odd human fashion statement. He saw now that it was where the Exsphere had been mounted. The blackening of the collar was the result of the Exsphere being forcibly removed. He considered asking, again, what had happened, but the light of life in the woman's eyes was dimming rapidly now. "I'll take care of this, too," he reassured her. "What is your name, lady?"

The woman closed her eyes, and swallowed back her pain. "Does it matter?" she asked quietly.

"It does," Dirk replied firmly. "I need to make sure your boy never forgets who you were."

The wounded woman smiled once again. "My name is Anna," she whispered on an exhaled breath. And then she died.

Lloyd tugged on Anna's skirts. "Mommy! _Mommy!_ Don't go 'way!" The boy collapsed into hysterical sobbing, shrieking at the top of his lungs and hitting his mother's body with tiny fists. Dirk tried to restrain the child, but Lloyd lashed out at him. "No! Go 'way! Lemme 'lone!"

"You heard your mother," Dirk said gently. "I promised her I'd make sure you were cared for. We need to go to the village before it gets dark."

"No! No no no no no nononononono! I won't! I _not_ gon' go wit' you!" Lloyd started screaming, an ear-piercing howl.

Dirk was at a loss. He couldn't leave this child in the middle of nowhere; yet how would the people of Iselia react to a dwarf bringing a child kicking and screaming into the village? Dirk made a few more attempts to reason with Lloyd before he came to his senses. Why was he trying to reason with a three-year-old? "Lloyd, I'll give you one more chance," Dirk said sternly. Lloyd quieted his screams and eyed the dwarf mistrustfully, hiccuping. "I'm going to take you to Iselia. We're going to spend the night at the inn, and then I'm going to try to find a family to take you. Come along now."

For a moment, Dirk thought he had gotten through to the toddler. As he reached for him, however, the boy howled once more and threw himself across his mother's corpse. He sighed heavily. "Anna, forgive me," he muttered, then approached Lloyd, wrapped his great arms around the child's waist, and hoisted him like a sack of potatoes. Lloyd's shrieking turned to a yelp, before resuming in earnest- complete with kicking and flailing now. With a little bit of a struggle, Dirk managed to sling Lloyd over one shoulder, and started the trek to Iselia.

Dirk almost lost the boy a few times. However, by the time he reached Iselia, Lloyd had cried himself to sleep, and Dirk shifted his burden so the child was cradled in his arms, rather than flung over a shoulder. The innkeeper at Iselia was obviously both concerned and intrigued, but took the dwarf's money without outward question and directed Dirk to one of the rooms.

Dirk laid Lloyd on one of the two beds in the tiny room, and just looked at the sleeping boy. There were lines on the child's face that even grown-ups didn't have yet, and he lacked the peaceful expression that babies should have as they slept. A dark shadow was cast on the child's face, his sleep disturbed by monsters seen only by him.

His heart ached for the boy. He wondered what horrors had befallen this child on this day, what kind of atrocity had he witnessed that no one should ever. His hatred for the Desians peaked. They weren't satisfied with grown men and women now, no- they were attacking _children_.

Despicable. Dirk ran a hand down the child's face in a comforting gesture, with the odd feeling that he had found what he was looking for. He only wished that he had found it sooner. If he had, perhaps this child wouldn't be an orphan now.

With that desolate thought, Dirk trudged to his own bed and laid down to try to sleep, and fail miserably.

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**A/N:** Plotbunny! I may continue this, I may not. I have a vague idea of where I would want it to go, were I to continue it... but a vague idea isn't enough. If I can flesh it out so that it could be decent, I will... but don't hold your breath.

In the meantime, I'm pretty sure there isn't actually an inn in Iselia. If I continue it, it will be explained. If I don't, assume it was one of the other buildings pre-game.


End file.
